In this sleepy psychological thriller about a serial killer, Clemence Michallon completely flips the genre. The story is fed to the reader in bits by the women in his life, the victim he can’t let go, his 13 year old daughter and a the woman who is desperate for a romantic relationship with him. Chilling and an absolute page turner!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and @crimebythebook for the recommendation.

This is such a unique read! I think if you have any interest in true crime or want to read a book that looks at both the victim and the villain and kind of shows the complexities and completeness of the villain as a whole person, I would highly recommend this book. I will say, I wouldn't consider this a thriller. It's a slow burn psychological drama with thrilling moments/elements, but I wouldn't consider it a thriller at all.

I received a DRC from Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I feel it is important to state that the subject-matter of this novel may be difficult for some readers. The story focuses on Rachel, who was kidnapped by a serial killer. The reader follows them as the rest of the community thinks the kidnapper is a model citizen in the community.
I appreciated that the story is basically told from Rachel’s point of view. As the focus was on what she did to survive. I connected with her right away.
I look forward to reading more from this author. It’s hard to believe this is a debut.

I was very excited to get my ARC of this book. Reading the description and reviews that called it “suspenseful” “sick” “sinister” so on and so forth. Ummm it was none of that? Yes… he’s a murderer and keeps the woman in a shed, but everything was very predictable and not suspenseful. Also, Emily is one of the most idiotic characters in a novel I have read in a long time. It kept my attention some of the time and was easy to read.

WOW this book.. WOWOW
This was a fast pace thriller read and it had me in a WTF the whole time! This book touches on woman’s strength and Stockholm syndrome, and the will to survive! It’s dark, but such an interesting read!! This is a summer tbr must!! I am so happy to have read this! It was fast paced and left me wondering what will happen next.

This book was so incredibly irksome in the very best (worst??) way. I felt such an incredible sense of claustrophobia while reading this book, as if I were the one who was being held captive by Aidan.

I can’t help but draw the conclusion that the author must have done quite a bit of research to really dig into the psyche of this creepy ass serial killer character. He felt so real and I was genuinely getting nightmares at night about being stuck in a room with a scary person.

This is so much darker than your typical thriller and I really enjoyed it a lot!

Holy moly, I just found your new favorite psychological thriller! This one had such a grip on me while I was reading, and as I was approaching the end, I simply COULD NOT put it down. I also liked that this was a thriller that wasn’t “scary” in the sense that I wasn’t scared to read it alone at night😂

Obviously it’s hard to say a lot about a thriller without spoilers, so I’m just going to generalize what I liked. The MC “Rachel” was so strong and savvy, and her thought process throughout this book was impressive, especially for someone in her position. There were times while reading that I was thinking, “what are you doing?!?”, but this only furthered the suspense for me. The multiple POV was great, and I liked seeing Aiden and the whole situation from these specific perspectives.

If you want a suspense-packed, contemporary thriller, pick this one up!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing Group for the advance copy!

I loved every minute of this taut, fast paced, edge of your seat thriller!! I cannot wait to read every word Clémence Michallon writes!!

Wow! What a read! Totally enjoyed this dark and devious novel taking a deep look into the human psyche. Crazy great characters that kept me invested from beginning to end. What a harrowing experience as both the reader and characters. This was dark and creepy for sure!
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

The Quiet Tenant is absolutely going to be in my Top 5 of 2023. WOW.

The story is told through three perspectives, a woman who has been held captive for 5 years, the daughter of the Aidan, the man holding her captive, and a woman who owns a restaurant where she starts to fall for Aidan. Through these perspectives, we learn how Aidan appears to his small town, and everything the woman in the shed knows about him, which includes the stories of the women he has killed. He forcefully "renamed" the woman in the shed Rachel, and while she knows how to act compliant with him, she's never given up on the possibility of a way out.

When Aidan's wife dies, he is forced to move to a new house, and decides to take "Rachel" with him, introducing her to his thirteen year old daughter Cecelia as a friend of a friend who needs a place to stay. The longer "Rachel" spends in their home with them, the more she learns. Maybe one day, she will find that perfect moment that is the right time to attempt an escape.

The Quiet Tenant is a mesmerizing story that is at once thrilling and full of heart. Michallon examines trauma with spellbinding prose while also taking you on a nail-biting journey. I enjoyed every second of reading it, and the climactic scenes hade me on the edge of my seat, turning pages as quickly as I could.

Fans of Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka, Don't Look for Me by Wendy Walker, or the TV show The Patient will devour this one!

I liked this book. I felt for the victim. I'm sure this happens and it takes a very strong person to survive something like this. I'm glad we had the resolution we got. I just thought the way she went about it was unnecessary. Sometimes, the simple easy way is the best way.

Aiden Thomas is a respected part of his close knit community where he lives with his daughter, 13, after his wife dies of cancer. Aiden is also a serial killer (not a spoiler). The book is told from the perspective of “Rachel”, the one woman he took captive but could not kill, his daughter and a new love interest. That’s it. That’s all I am telling you.

My Thoughts: 5 stars; so well done! The tension in this book kept me on the edge of my seat. So disturbing, complex and really made me think. I also love that Aiden was not a narrator and did not have a voice. This reminded me of Notes On An Execution (a five star of 2022), but it is different and completely stand on its own.

I predict this one will be a hit. Put it on your TBR and prioritize it, especially if you are a lit fiction lover. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Thank you @aaknopf and for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Wow! This story is told from the perspective of the victim and the daughter of a serial killer. If you read this, be prepared for feelings of horror and for moments of anxiety as the victim tries to find a way to survive…and possibly escape. This was packed full of suspense!

* I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.

I really liked how we get the different POVs of the other victims throughout the book, but I really thought the author would do something with them to explain why Aiden is a murderer. Unfortunately, we never get a reason for that or a reason why he kept this one woman for the last FIVE years. That is a huge loss to me. We spend the whole book trying to see if she’ll escape, which really is the only thing that makes this a “thriller”, and when we finally do it just feels kinda messy. I also spent almost every Emily chapter rolling my eyes because she’s just a stalker! She lets herself into his house using his spare key TWICE which is really uncomfortable.

Probably wouldn’t recommend since there’s just never a “why”.

A psychological thriller that has three different aspects from three different characters. One being the woman captured for five years, his daughter and the potential new girlfriend. The person responsible for all this is a man who everyone thinks is an upstanding community man but he holds darks secrets. Will all be revealed? Will the daughter find out? Will there be a new victim?

Clémence has written a masterpiece here, the fast paced novel. I wanted to know more and couldn’t put the book down. I always enjoy multiple aspects in a book to create the “whole” story. I love a flash back and mystery of who “Rachel” really was and how each character wondered who she was. The relationship between the capture and daughter I think she somehow knew. I would recommend this book for sure. The darkness of the novel was very gripping from the first page.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Alfred A.Knopf/Penguin Random House for this ARC in exchange for honest review.
What a grand slam of thriller. I'm still breathless from the read.
Put simply, "The Quiet Tenant" is textbook example of everything you want in a stay-up-all-night, page turner. By the time you reach the final chapters, you realize the book has you completely by the throat and racing to the finish at 'Star Wars' hyper-drive speed.
Author Clemence Michallon picked a well worn (some would even say worn out) genre - the sick twisted path of a serial killer who stalks and then keeps his victims as sex slaves until he decides he's finished with them.....and then he finishes them.
And of course, this inhuman soul, as many of them do, lives a life as a beloved, friendly, upstanding member of his community, a respected dutiful single dad to his 13 year old daughter. Following his wife's cancer death, the town reaches out even more to embrace this poor tragedy stricken dad and child.
The story unfolds from three viewpoints......the currently enslaved, abused woman,, kept in a shed and forced to call herself "Rachel" by her captor, 'family guy" Aiden Thomas......Aiden's daughter Cecelia, painfully lonely from being cut off from almost all socialization by her father........and lastly Emily, a young bartender/restaurant manager who's become overwhelmingly smitten by Aiden, unaware he's selected her as his next victim.
The narrative belongs primarily to "Rachel", and her heart rending account of how somehow she's managed to stay alive longer then any of the women who came before her. Sensing her time's running out, she sees a desperate chance in a sudden, drastic change for Aiden and Cecelia.
Forced to vacant his house, (and its shed), Aiden must move to a home with no secluded hiding spot, He's put in the position of imprisoning "Rachel" in the new house itself and passing her off to Cecelia as a good friend needing 'quiet time' to recover from some shattering trauma.
Author Michallon sure knows how to suck you in to these characters and totally invest you (and fear for) the ultimate fates of Rachel, Cecelia and Emily. The suspense steadily builds to near excruciating levels and once the endgame commences, I don't know how anyone could possibly put the book down.
Even if there's readers who think they've read every variation of a story like this, I still say don't miss this one. A thriller that thrills like "The Quiet Tenant" is a 5 star essential and a "must have" for this year.

Tense, terrifying with incandescent prose, The Quiet Tenant is a literary thriller about a woman who is the captive of a serial killer.

When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his 13yo daughter are forced to move, and Rachel, his prisoner, manages to convince him to bring her with. But Rachel is a survivor, and she begins to form a tenuous bond with his daughter. And then there’s Emily, Aidan’s new girlfriend…

With a hook like that, I had to pick it up. And I stayed hooked the whole way through. Compelling, disturbing and suffused with dread, I was glued to my seat, unable to look away. The prose is beautiful, the story atmospheric, the characters richly imagined. The Quiet Tenant is an elegant, gritty exploration of survival, and a chilling reminder that we never truly know others as well as we think we do.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC. The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon is a superb debut novel. It’s a story told from multiple viewpoints as well as various timeframes, yet all comes together tightly & cohesively. This follows the story of a man, & also father, who attacks/kills women and also keeps one hostage for several years in a shed next to his home. He is beloved by those who know him, which makes what he does all the more possible. Reading the story from vantage points of his daughter, past victims, the girl he somewhat dating, and most importantly, the girl he keeps hostage, are what makes this story leap off the page. Every time I took a break from reading this, I was excited and interested to come back to it. Where thriller genre books are often tritely put together, this one shows that excellent thrillers can be written. Hats off to Clémence Michallon, especially for writing this in a language other than her native one.

THE QUIET TENANT (Knopf) is another reminder for me that when people seem too nice, too sweet, too helpful, too just about anything, there's going to be a surprise. Debut author, Clemence Michallon does a superb job at creating a psychological thriller that kept me flipping the pages.

Aidan Thomas is thee neighbor that the residents of a small upstate New York community would call a nice guy. But there is another side to Aidan Thomas. He's a serial killer, and he's currently holding his next victim hostage. Rachel has been Aidan's prisoner in the backyard shed for five years and she believes she's his next kill. When his wife dies, Aidan and his thirteen year-old daughter must move. Aidan introduces Rachel as a "family friend" who needs a place to stay, believing she won't escape after five years of being held in captivity and brainwashed. Things turn out to be very different from what Aidan was expecting.

Michallon does a superb job getting inside Aidan's head, as well as the female characters he has power over. THE QUIET TENANT is a thriller of trauma, survival, female strength and power. It's fast-paced and doesn't disappoint.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book and provide a review.

Where to even start? Overall, I loved this book. I was engaged the entire time and quickly trying to get to the next page. I love the writers style and chapter structure and I thought it was lovely to see that this was her first book in English and I loved the pacing of the characters. This is the first book I’ve read really when I got to the end of a chapter that ended on a cliffhanger, I couldn’t let myself stop until I finished… which is how I read the last half of the book in one day. My only small note was wishing that we got some more details around certain chapters and more explanation about what was happening but the author does a great job painting the picture without giving us every detail and I certainly understand the writing choice to do it this way! I would highly recommend this to any fellow mystery/thriller lover.